organic

In this lesson, Toby Hemenway uses Prezi as an alternative to PowerPoint for his presentation titled ‘Guilds: Building Blocks for Creating Ecosystems’. Toby takes this sometimes mystifying topic and presents it for you very simply and clearly. He uses the well-known three-sisters triad of corn, beans, and squash to explain what a guild is and how it works.

He starts with a simple two-part guild, with pictures to clarify, then moves onto a more complicated six-part guild, also with pictures to clarify. Then Toby presents three methods for designing guilds — by structure, function, and analogy. He unpacks the idea of designing by structure as he talks about edge, layering, interplanting, and stacking. He begins to unpack designing by function as he talks about the first three of the six pieces of a guild: central elements, insectaries, and mulch makers.

This permaculture video is part of a permaculture design course focused on food forest design for cities and suburbs.

Get Toby Hemenway’s full course at http://organiclifeguru.com

The course name is Food Forest Design & Care for Cites and Suburbs by Toby Hemenway.